October 2022

This was a bucket list hike for me. Last year I had hiked up to McNeil Point Shelter on Mt. Hood. This is one of only 3 stone shelters still standing on the mountain that were built in the 1920s as I recall. (I have slept in 2 out of 3 of these shelters. I visited the third and found the roof crushed by a huge fir tree and now unsafe). Anyway, the morning after that night to McNeil Point, I had taken a sunrise hike up higher toward the summit of Mt. Hood before hiking back out to my truck. I was climbing up right near the Sandy Glacier Caves. On the way up that oh-so-steep incline where you really start to notice the drop in oxygen levels, I found a small bivouac site created by someone under Ho Rock. It was a truly inhospitable sight, but instantly that morning I regretted sleeping in the stone shelter a thousand feet below and wished I had spent the night under this rock. Granted it is high up and pretty exposed with nothing but sand and rock for company. There is virtually nowhere to easily go to the bathroom and Ho rock has a bit of an overhang at the top that will surely crush any backpacker dead when it breaks. But since when have things like this stopped me?? My bigger concern was what would happen if I climbed all the way up there with my overnight pack and found someone else in my dream bivouac spot? There would be no alternative place to roll out a sleeping bag and I would have to drop down at least a 1000ft to find somewhere else to sleep. I decided to chose October for this bucket list backpack thinking my odds would be better at getting Ho Rock to myself. If you look closely here, you can see Nova keeping our sleeping bag warm under Ho Rock while I was trying to convince the wolf to go potty in the sand.

I was thrilled that we did indeed get the Rock to ourselves. I set up the greatest camp and after the sun went to bed and the stars came out, I lit up a single votive candle in our little circle of sand and rock. It was so incredibly festive and made for the perfect end of 2022 overnight trips! I knew the weather was changing and this would be my last backpack for the season. My greatest challenge that night was teaching the wolf that she could just pee anywhere in the sand. Both Nova and I tried to demonstrate where the latrine could be, but she was holding out for grass. She only made it until about 2am when things got desperate. That is not the best time to be sleep walking and stumbling on the edge of a cliff trying to get a wolf to pee I can tell you that!

This photo was taken in the evening as the sun was getting long in the sky and we were ready for a great sunset. Looking out over the land far below us from this viewpoint made me feel we were looking out God’s window. When the sky did become black that night, we had shooting stars fly right over our faces on their way south for winter. I feared they were about to hit the peak of Hood, but they were apparently a bit higher than they seemed! We also were looking right across into the open mouths of the Sandy Glacier Caves and could literally see and hear the birth of the Muddy Fork River coming out of the mouths of those caves. These are the largest glacier caves in the lower 48 states! I remember worrying what else might come out of the caves in the dark of night. What a night that was though!! If you look just to the left of Josie's head in the photo below you can see one of the ice cave openings.

The very best part about that night, however, was that right after I lit the candle and knew it’s light could be seen for a far distance, someone turned on a bright flashlight and aimed it our way from many, many miles away!! The way that made me feel while alone on the side of that mountain is indescribable. Sometimes in places like this, you can feel as if you are the last human on earth and so I thank whoever sent me that message!! I don’t generally like humans, but that light beacon in response to my candle lighting up was something else. It takes just a little light to push the darkness away that is for sure!

On the hike out the next morning the girls were looking a little tired and ragged from our somewhat sleepless night. I am sure I was looking the same!! Thank God I do not hike with a mirror!